University House dining hall caters for University House and Varietas.

Second tier dining halls

UCT has three residence dining halls operating, with some being shared by more than one residence as follows:

Medical Residence caters for its own students.

Groote Schuur Residence students take breakfast in the residence dining hall from Monday to Friday. Other meals are taken in the Leo Marquard dining hall.

Forest Hill G-Block students take their meals in the University House dining hall.

Meal times over weekdays during term time (first and second tier catering residences)

Breakfast 07h00 – 08h30

Lunch 12h00 – 14h00

Dinner 17h30 – 20h00

Breakfast times over weekends are from 08h00 – 09h30 and during study week from 07h30 – 09h00.

Students are required to leave the dining hall within 15 minutes after service time ends to facilitate cleaning and setting up the dining hall for the next meal. Due to the fact that we run a manual catering system and it is recognized that students miss some meals, an 8% discount has been factored into catering fees upfront, hence students only pay 92% of the cost of catering in any given year. Refunds are therefore not given as the 8% translates to approximately 64 meals a year.

Comments, complaints, suggestions and any catering-related matters are dealt with on a monthly basis through the Catering Forum. An elected food representative who is a house committee member represents students on the Forum. The UCT Senior Co-ordinator: Catering chairs the meeting, which is also attended by the project manager of the catering company and the catering managers of the kitchens. Minutes of these meetings are sent to the Director of Student Housing and Residence Life as well as the respective wardens of the residences concerned. Students can use the comments book as a channel to voice their concerns or compliments daily. Issues identified are taken seriously and form part of the ongoing evaluation of the contractor.